North Shore Rescue

Book excerpt: The North Shore Rescue Team has existed since 1965 and has performed thousands of search and rescue operations on the North Shore Mountains and other locations throughout British Columbia and Washington State. Team activities have assisted at least 4,500 lost or injured individuals in mountain and wilderness settings. While these operations have been featured in numerous media reports throughout Canada and other countries, there is an additional element to these operations to which few people have been exposed. This book presents the oral history of the North Shore Rescue team. Team members, their spouses, and subjects provide unique insights, recollections and perspectives on search and rescue operations. Some stories reflect life and death struggles, others are humorous, some generate disturbing thoughts and some are politically incorrect. Nevertheless, these are the memories and stories from people involved with the most experienced, best trained, best equipped volunteer search and rescue team in Canada. This is a book about selfless volunteers performing complex rescue operations, camaraderie under stressful conditions, lives saved, lives lost, as told by people who were involved. These stories will be of interest to those who climb, snowshoe, ski, hike, kayak, explore or engage in any other form of outdoor recreational activity. None of these stories have ever been revealed to the general public. Each operational story contains a lesson associated with personal safety and provides insights into what to do, or not do, when lost or injured in the wilds.